Tír Na HiFi

nige2000 wrote: any pics of the new board ?

Posted here:
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2768

Spent a few hours this evening again trying to hear differences where I could prefer one MQN version over another and again struggling, just hearing slightly different flavours and I could live with any of them as they all sound good.
Not sure what has changed and even changing over 2 identical ssd drives with different settings I could not find a best of the lot. Only a couple of weeks ago I could easily tell differences particularly the added detail and recently bass became much fuller but no matter what I do now I cannot seem to loose all this added detail and bass.

Will leave the choice for those with a bats hearing as I appear to be going bats trying to hear anything weak in comparisons after recent changes to my Audio PC and DAC.

All very odd!!!

Maybe the board needs to burn in Pearse? Haven't had a chance to test any of the latest versions this week

Pearse, I had a quick look at the pics of the two boards.
First thing to say is that there are substantial component differences between the two boards!!
The two clocks are most definitely audio clocks - one for each speed rate family - surprising these weren't used on the old board as they would be considered the best configuration for clocking. Otherwise, the audio clocks are being derived from one clock sources (the crystal?) by division/multiplication within the XMOS chip & added jitter is the definite result of this.

The question is - are the two clocks being used as a reclocker of the I2S signal on the output from the board (the best configuration) or are the two clocks acting as inputs into the XMOS chip? Probably, only Meitner can answer that?

Hard to know why the Meitner now masks(?) any differences between MQN versions? Is it masking or is it immunity? As Nige says, haven't heard a DAC yet that is immune to upstream differences - this might be a first, who knows?

Have you tried other upstream changes to see if these are audible - changes that, in the past were audible?

BTW, what are the two buttons in the top right pic of the new board - reset switches?

3.45 sse2, think it's a step forward

3.48 sounds good

3.51 is interesting. I think I like it.

I think we are all just splitting hairs now guys!

With so many varieties of MQN that sound great, shouldn't we all just select the revision that suits our system?
Is it not pointless/fruitless trying to find the ultimate MQN version (when its already so good)? we all run different OS's and configs, different system components.... I'm not sure their will ever be a winner, am I wrong?

I am also not sure there's much more to gain by endless tweaking, when much bigger gains can be had with small component changes such as USB to spdif converters, amps, speakers, room acoustic treatment or dare I say it equalisation/room compensation (yes I said equalisation).

I think functionality should be the next stage of development...
How much functionality can we put back into MQN without affecting its sound?

I would be one to vote for html control, ipad control or similar.
Or how about network streaming?

Thoughts?

minionas wrote:Thanks Jonathan!
Yes, 24/192 is not yet supported. But i believe it will be in the future, since Mqn turn out into real audiophile player:) sbgk is really gifted to make this far!

Last night, by mistake, I played a 24/192 track from Linn Records, or that is what MQn told me it was 24/192, and to my surprise it played beautifully with MQn 3.39 24/96 on my WaveIO. Perhaps you want to try it?

2channelaudio wrote:...dare I say it equalisation/room compensation (yes I said equalisation).

I think functionality should be the next stage of development...
How much functionality can we put back into MQN without affecting its sound?

doesn't your DAC control panel support EQ? should work for wasapi

2channelaudio wrote: I think functionality should be the next stage of development...
How much functionality can we put back into MQN without affecting its sound?

I would be one to vote for html control, ipad control or similar.
Or how about network streaming?

Thoughts?

cannot think of single functionality i want...

starting to think functionalities are for losers. no offense
in my low end setup
enable LAN = -5% SQ
plugin a mouse = -1-5% SQ
1 GPU = -5%
2 GPU = -7%
1 USB port = -0.5%
10 USB ports = -10%
....
pretty sure i lost about 400-500% SQ with "funtionalities".

maybe you are so deep underwater starting to give up hehehe